BUSINESSES in Worcester are counting the cost after a major power failure meant many opened late yesterday.

The blackout happenened at 2.38am in Worcester – affecting at least 1,300 customers in the city – followed just minutes later by 4,896 customers in Malvern losing power.

Although many people had their power back by the time they woke up yesterday morning, a number of high street shops had to open late and the traffic lights in Sidbury and Lowesmoor stopped working.

Tom Brown, manager of the Foregate Patisserie in Foregate Street, said it was continued on page 2 the worst incident to affect his business that he could remember.

He said: “It has affected us badly.

“I would say we have lost about £3,000. It’s a whole day of business. We have missed the morning rush on what is normally the busiest day of the week.

“The bakers came in at 1am, an hour before the power went off, and made the first three batches of dough mix, which by the time we opened had to be thrown away.

“We reopened just before 10am, but we haven’t been able to make any bread, cakes or cooked food, meaning we have virtually nothing for our lunchtime trade.”

Mr Brown said that the electricity supplier’s response had surprised him: “We were told at 2am, and again at 3am, that it would be back on in an hour, but it ended up being nine.

“We will be open as usual tomorrow and I can only hope that those who couldn’t come in today, or that did but were disappointed, will come back.”

Meanwhile, Good News in The Foregate opened it’s doors at the normal time of 7.30am - albeit in the dark and with no power.

Assistant manager Barny Weston said: “A lot of people checked to see if we were still open. There was the normal amount of people, but no one really knew where to go.

“We couldn’t sell lottery tickets, or top-ups, and the shop was dark, but we decided to open on time.

“Our sales lost by not being able to turn on the machines were made up by being the only newsagent able to open at the time.”

A spokesman for Central Networks blamed the problems on an underground cable fault and said initial reports where that the whole of Worcester was without power but later investigations revealed the problem was confined to central Worcester.

By 4.04am power was returned to properties in Malvern and by 5.50am Central Networks said all but one of the properties in Worcester had power.

But it took until 1pm for the problem to be completely solved.